Storytelling in the Knifemaker's Shop

Today began with the knifemaker and knifemaker's dad working on special orders. The sun shines hard on the working deck so even though the mountain could be seen [remember a previous post about humidity], it was too hot to work for the extended period of time needed to forge many dozens of nails. In the  meantime, the knifemaker's aunt swept up grindings and accumulated dust from months of work. It was satisfying work exposing wood flooring unseen for quite a while. The knifemaker's lady friend ordered materials to make forges. Nails were counted and sorted, blades were ground and polished, and in general everyone kept busy.

Agitating laundry, one direction
and then another.

As friends dropped by to talk about this and that, companionable stories were swapped. One story to be shared, in keeping with yesterday's laundry post, was an analogy about Maytag washers and dryers: Life is like a Maytag - you get into hot water, are agitated one direction and another until beliefs are shaken or rubbed off before being spun around in a frenzy....As you are wondering what the bejeebers just happened, lo and behold the drama continues as you are thrown into hell and tumbled heads over heels. When it's all over, it was about appearances and money all along.

Other stories were about Millenials and the stereotypes that define the 20-somethings. The knifemaker IS a millenial, as is the knifemaker's lady friend and although they admitted to recognizing some of the traits. those assembled agreed they were not typical. This YouTube was shared and inspired chuckles all around:

The day drew to a close when a couple events collided: a walk-in student and her father took a class to make a railroad spike knife, and two babies birds fell out of a nest in the shop chimney. The student is active in FFA and 4H and had a blast making her own knife. The baby birds were scooped up and put into a box, given water, and the local petting zoo called.  

The chimney is behind one of the grinding stations, but should probably be blocked at the top where the nesting bird got in. Even though the sweeping cleared much of the dust and grinding debris, the shop is still dirty and certainly no place for baby birds!

All is all, a pleasant day. The knifemaker's aunt did not produce much in the way of knives. She allowed her hand to heal a bit before diving back into forging tomorrow. In the meantime, she kept herself busy and learned quite a bit about personality, humanity, and life.